How to clean out spam?
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Category: Web Wiz Web App Support Forums
Forum Name: Web Wiz Forums
Forum Description: Support forum for Web Wiz Forums application.
URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=28934
Printed Date: 01 April 2026 at 3:54pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: How to clean out spam?
Posted By: rgelb
Subject: How to clean out spam?
Date Posted: 28 October 2010 at 6:11pm
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My forum (running at v9.5) has been completely overrun by spam. I didn't pay attention to it for a couple of months and now 99% of the entries are junk. Are there tools to help me clean it out? I looked in the control panel and could find nothing to help me. I am also pretty handy with Access SQL, so if someone could post a DELETE query to delete all posts after a certain date, that would do the trick as well. Thank you.
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Replies:
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 28 October 2010 at 7:25pm
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You would need to go through and delete each topic or post within the main forum. Also have a look at the page below to prevent getting more spam in your forum:- http://www.webwiz.net/webwizforums/kb/spam_prevention.asp" rel="nofollow - http://www.webwiz.net/webwizforums/kb/spam_prevention.asp ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: JohnnyW
Date Posted: 02 November 2010 at 6:27pm
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Hi Bruce, I think this is an issue which could do with a bit of work in future versions. Cleaning out spam posts and spammers is a tedious and time consuming task on WebWiz. You have to go into the user account then find all their posts delete them and ban the user. When your forum gets hit hard with them then it takes up a lot of valuable time. I'm a developer myself so relitivly easily wrote my own mod called the 'spamming p**k' button for admins which sits under the post options menu. If there's a spammer hit the forum by hitting the page it'll delete all their posts, ban their account and their IP address. It has certainly cut down on a lot of wasted time and I'm sure it'd be a welcome addition to future versions as the problem is only going to get worse unfortunatly. |
Posted By: rgelb
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 5:09pm
| Bruce, understood. However, can u post a SQL script to get rid of all posts after a certain date? It's just easier and faster than going one by one. |
Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 5:18pm
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Why don't you use Forum Tools, batch delete topics, and clean them out that way. However, you risk losing topics that you may want remaining
------------- http://www.123simples.com/" rel="nofollow - Visit 123 Simples Web Design |
Posted By: rgelb
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 5:25pm
| @MrTWS Because that Batch Delete Topics deletes ones that haven't been posted in for x days/weeks/months. I need to delete everything that's been posted in the last 6 months. |
Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 5:33pm
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Hi RGelb How many actual posts are we talking about? I found a link here (okay it is for wordpress) but it may give you a heads up on what code to run on an SQL query: http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2010/06/how-to-effectively-bulk-delete-many-posts-in-wordpress.html" rel="nofollow - Link I typed in "SQL script to get rid of all posts after a certain date" I don't know if this helps or hinders, but Bruce will be the man who can give you a definitive answer - I'm only guessing ------------- http://www.123simples.com/" rel="nofollow - Visit 123 Simples Web Design |
Posted By: rgelb
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 5:36pm
| @MrTws - We are talking about 6 months of spam (probably several thousand entries). Thanks for the link - but yeah, its for WordPress - difference schema. |
Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 5:53pm
So are you busy for the next few weeks then?  If it is several thousands of spam messages, then out of curiosity, how many are left that you actually want to keep? I'm sure Bruce (or someone more up on this) will give you an answer to your problem, but if I were you, I'd start making manual deletions now just to cut down on the workload ------------- http://www.123simples.com/" rel="nofollow - Visit 123 Simples Web Design |
rgelb wrote:Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 5:58pm
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Also, by any chance is your posts (spam) mainly made by guests, rather than members?
------------- http://www.123simples.com/" rel="nofollow - Visit 123 Simples Web Design |
Posted By: rgelb
Date Posted: 09 November 2010 at 5:03pm
| The posts are by members and guests. So after deleting all the spam posts there should be about a 1000 legit posts left. |
Posted By: Scotty32
Date Posted: 09 November 2010 at 6:33pm
you could probably go into the database and do:
Which would delete all posts for that user. Though, I dont know if it would affect other parts of the forum, You would need to do a Posts Resync in the Admin Area. You may also end up with Topics that dont have any posts in them, another SQL statement may be able to clear them out too. ------------- S2H.co.uk - http://www.s2h.co.uk/wwf/" rel="nofollow - WebWiz Mods and Skins For support on my mods + skins, please use http://www.s2h.co.uk/forum/" rel="nofollow - my forum . |
Posted By: StarDust
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 8:38am
I absolutely support this idea. I think the developers should look into this idea for the future versions. Its not something that will require some major re-shifting in the coding, so it could be done. Hi Bruce, MrTWS and Scotty! Its good to meet you again! ------------- http://board.ebizbd.net/">  Tips, mods and skins for WWF v9.x
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Posted By: pbanks
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 9:08am
It would be great if you could "share" this in the Mod Section ... I think we'd all benefit from such an addition? |
Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 6:23pm
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Hi StarDust Where have you been? ------------- http://www.123simples.com/" rel="nofollow - Visit 123 Simples Web Design |
Posted By: StarDust
Date Posted: 11 November 2010 at 5:03am
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MrTWS, I have been around. just was silent. :D
------------- http://board.ebizbd.net/"> Tips, mods and skins for WWF v9.x
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Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 11 November 2010 at 7:53pm
Well peeps here miss your comments as they are very much valued. 
------------- http://www.123simples.com/" rel="nofollow - Visit 123 Simples Web Design |
Posted By: dfrancis
Date Posted: 13 November 2010 at 1:50pm
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I think that would be a great mod! In the edit user section, where you would be able to suspend the user and have the option to "remove all posts" by the member. I know, won't work on guest posts, but it's a start. ------------- “If you want things to be different, you must be willing to do different things!” http://www.DavidFrancis.org/?wwf=signature" rel="nofollow - David Francis |
Posted By: billd3
Date Posted: 15 November 2010 at 12:50pm
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since guests can't post in our forums, then it would work for us! I'd ban the IP, suspend the user, delete all posts, or in our case, we move them to a post graveyard section that's hidden from all but moderators, that way if there's a mistake, a post can be recovered. We then go in and delete posts over so many weeks old to clean up now and then. So in our case, I'd like to: 1. Ban poster's IP. 2. Suspend user, make comment "spammer" and who took action (we put our names or initials in as sort of a way to track in case of a problem). 3. Move all posts to the post graveyard. ------------- BillD http://theamcpages.com http://theamcforum.com |